Renewables rise above the fray by Lane Crockett

As reported yesterday, the Climate Institute launched Climate of the Nation 2012 which is an annual research piece that seeks to understand the attitudes of Australians regardingclimate change and energy. While this year’s report finds that Australians are exhausted by the politics around climate policy and are somewhat confused on climate change science their vision of a low-carbon future is crystal clear: they want renewable energy.

For the last few years climate change and its solutions have been the target of a well-oiled campaign against innovation, efficiency and clean energy investment. This campaign has included vitriolic attacks directed at highly regarded members of the scientific community, vain attempts to debunk well-established climate change science and highly inaccurate and misleading claims made about possible solutions such as renewable energy.

What is clear form this is that no matter how certain the science or how innovative and exciting new clean technologies are there will always be areas of uncertainty that those opposed will seek to exploit.

But the Australian community is seeing through the bluster of climate sceptics and vested interests as their support for and commitment to a clean energy future remains strong. The Howard Government‘s early leadership on the renewable energy target back in 2001 struck a chord with the people that is still resonating.

People do not trust, or agree with the constant attacks from those who continue to peddle conspiracy theories about renewable energy that are ill-informed and usually misleading. While there will always be avenues for the likes of the IPA, ACCI and others to peddle such bluster-filled opinion, the poison pill for them remains: the community likes clean energy and they want it to lead the way.

When asked to rank their three most preferred and least preferred energy sources, solar, wind and hydro topped the ladder. Gas is favoured by some but disliked by others while – not surprisingly – coal and nuclear are the least preferred.